Canadian who moved his family to Russia for ‘traditional values’ says he no longer recommends it: permanent residency would require signing a Defense Ministry contract — Meduza
meduza.io
Canadian farmer Arend Feenstra, who moved to Russia through a streamlined immigration program for citizens of “unfriendly” countries who share “traditional values,” has complained that he cannot get a permanent residence permit. The news outlet Nizhny Novgorod Onlain drew attention to his YouTube video.

Canadian farmer Arend Feenstra, who moved to Russia through a streamlined immigration program for citizens of “unfriendly” countries who share “traditional values,” has complained that he cannot get a permanent residence permit. The news outlet Nizhny Novgorod Onlain drew attention to his YouTube video.

Feenstra received a three-year temporary residence permit in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region in early 2025. He then brought his wife and eight children to Russia and began farming.

But Feenstra has now learned that to replace his temporary residence permit with a permanent one, he must sign a contract with Russia’s Defense Ministry.

  • yucandu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    183·
    13 days ago

    The Oblasts that Russia is currently occupying had already democratically seceded after the 2014 coup.

    Were those “democratic secessions” internationally observed?

    No, they were done at gunpoint.

    Azov Brigade ran over civilian barricades in Mariupol with their tanks. That was the invasion.

    You’re repeating Putin’s propaganda.

    You are seeing this through the eyes of the occupier.

    The occupier is Russia, and it sounds like you’ve been brainwashed by their “west bad” propaganda your whole life.

    • OBJECTION!@lemmy.mlEnglish
      14·
      12 days ago

      Were those “democratic secessions” internationally observed?

      What international observers would not have a conflict of interest? Which countries have affirmed that these regions have the right to a secession vote in the first place?

      They were not allowed an official secession vote for the same reason that the parties those regions supported were outlawed.

      No, they were done at gunpoint.

      Kind of like Euromaidan.

    • LocalAreaMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      217·
      13 days ago

      The DPR and LPR invited anyone who wanted to come.

      All elections are guarded by guns, especially after a coup and entering a civil war. If you disrupt a polling station in America you’ll see guys with guns pretty fast.

      The idea that a region who overwhelmingly voted for Yanukovych wouldn’t want to secede is denying the realities. You sound like a MAGA election denier.

      I’m GenX in America. I’ve listened to your tired Boomer McCarthyist propaganda my entire life.

      It was Nazi propaganda before that, and nothing has really changed.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        12 days ago

        The idea that a region who overwhelmingly voted for Yanukovych wouldn’t want to secede is denying the realities.

        Wat. The guy’s platform was literally closer economic ties with the EU, which like 70% of the population supported. In what world does that imply a desire to secede?

        • LocalAreaMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
          26·
          12 days ago

          It was his campaign promise because Europe offered the better trade deal, until it didn’t. Russia didn’t want to lose influence because they feared exactly what’s happening, so Russia simply offered an objectively better trade deal. That’s all. Yanukovych would have been corrupt not to take the better deal. And even if you refuse to believe it was a better deal, which it was, a broken campaign promise hardly necessitates a coup. We’d have a lot of coups in America if so. The 2014 coup was enacted by Svoboda, a Banderite party that only has support in Lvov Oblast, who was the only Oblast to vote for Petroshenko over Zelensky in 2019.

          Zelensky promised peace through the Minsk Agreement, yet was powerless to stop the Azov Brigade from shelling civilians in Donetsk. Now Zelensky is a kapo stooge who will never outlast his usefulness to Banderites.

          Let people vote and they’ll tell you if they’re “Ukrainian” or not. Yet, that’s not what American and Europe are interested in.

          THIS👇 is all you need to know about the West’s adversarial nature toward Russia.